Electric water-heater.



JESSE F. WHEELOCK, OF DOBBINS, CALIFORNIA.

ELECTRIC WATER-HEATER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 28, 1916.

Application filed July 14, 1914. Serial No. 850,937.

To all whom it may canoe m Be it known that I, JESSE F. WnnnLooK, acitizen of the United States, residing at Dobbins, in the county ofYuba, State of California, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Electric Water- Heaters; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

This invention relates to water heaters, particularly to electric waterheaters, and has for its object the provision of a simple and eflicientelectric heating device adapted to be immersed in the liquid to beheated.

An important object is the provision of a device of this character inwhich the electric circuit is closed by the liquid in which the deviceis immersed and thereby the liquid forms the resistance element fordeveloping heat.

An additional object is the provision of a deviceof this character whichwill be extremely simple and inexpensive to manufacture, eflicient anddurable in use and a general improvement of the art.

With these and other objects and advantages in View, the inventionconsists in the novel construction and arrangement as will behereinafter more fully described and claimed, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinalsectional view through my device disposed in a receptacle containingwater, and Fig. 2 is a. similar view taken at right angles of Fig. 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawing the numeral 5 designates areceptacle containing water 6 to be heated.

In order to carry out the purpose of the invention, I provide a pair ofplates 7 formed of insulating material, such as fiber or hard rubber.Upon each of these plates 7 is disposed ametallic plate 8 formed of. anysuitable metal. The plates 7 and 8 are secured together by screws 9which pass through bushings 10 of insulating material extending throughalined openings formed in the plates 7 and 8. One screw and bushing isdisposed preferably at each end of the device. Clamping nuts 11 aredisposed on the screws 9 for holding the parts firmly together.

Binding posts 12 are secured through the plates 7 and have the heads oftheir screws 13 disposed within recesses 14 in the metallic plates 8 sothat contact will be lnadebetween the plates and their respectivebinding posts while allowing the plates 8 to rest flat upon the plates7. Wires from any suitable source of current are connected with thebinding posts 12 for supplying current to the conductor plates 8.

In order to space the metallic plates 8 apart, I provide washers 15 ofinsulating material disposed around the bushings 10 for preventingcontact of the metallic plates with each other. The device is used byimmersing it in the vessel containing the liquid to be heated. As themetallic plates 8 are separated by the washers 15, the water or otherliquid will itself form the bridge for the current to pass from onemetallic plate to the other. In view of the fact that ordinary wateroffers high resistance to the passage of electricity therethrough, itwill be obvious that the thin layer of water between the metallic plateswill become heated. Such heating is continued until the water hasreached the desired temperature.

It is to be observed that the metallic plates 8 are spaced inwardly fromthe edge of the insulating plates 7 thereby permitting the device to beused for heating water in metallic receptacles, as the metallic plates 8cannot in any way contact with the sides of the vessel or receptacle andwill thus be prevented from producing a short circuit.

From the foregoing description and a study of the drawing it will beapparent that I have thus provided a novel and extremely simple electricwater heating device which may be used for domestic or other purposesfor the heating of water in large or small amounts.

It will be readily understood that I reserve the right to make variouschanges in the form, construction and arrangement of parts withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention or limiting the scope of thesubjoined claim.

Having thus described my invention. I claim:

An electric heating element for insertion into a container to heat aliquid therein, consisting of a pair of insulating plates in parallelrelation, a conductor plate disposed againstthe inner face of eachinsulating plate, an insulating spacing block disposed between and incontact with the mutually adjacent faces of the conductorplates at oneend thereof, said plates and block having In testimony whereof, I affixmy signaregistering perforations, a clamping device ture, in thepresence of two witnesses. passed through said perforations andinsulated from the conductor plates and imping- JESSE WHEELOCK' ingagainst the outer faces of the insulating Witnesses:

plates, and electrical connections carried by WILLIAM SIMMONS, theconductor plates. Emv. M. ADDINGTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents Washington, .D G.

